Keynote: Baroness Floella Benjamin
Baroness Floella Benjamin is a pioneering actor, writer and campaigner who came to England in 1960 at the age of ten as part of the Windrush children. Experiencing a massive culture shock, Floella found Britain cold and unwelcoming, even violent and bleak, she had to quickly learn at an early age to live in two cultures to survive.
Unable to continue school past the age of 16 due to financial hardship, Floella entered the school of life. As a prominent advocate for diversity and inclusion with over 40 years of experience, Floella is a highly articulate speaker on representation with an abundance of fascinating personal anecdotes to share.
Whilst working at a bank, Floella attended night school for three years to obtain her A-levels, following her mother’s advice about needing an education to progress in life. Although she was exceptionally good at her job and had the potential to become a bank manager, she quickly realised during that period in Britain it was an unrealistic dream. With some trepidation, Floella decided to audition to go on a national tour of a hit musical, asking the bank to keep her job as a precaution. She never looked back, going on to appear in several stage musicals including Black Mikado and Jesus Christ Superstar whilst also seeking TV work.
After repeated attempts, she finally got her big break in the drama Within These Walls with Googie Withers. During the same period, Floella appeared in Playschool and continued to present the show for 12 years. In 1977 after staring in Black Joy she was invited to the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1987 she decided to open her own television company. Immediately, she was commissioned to make Tree House by Channel 4.
Floella is especially proud of her book Coming to England which won a Royal Television Society Award in 2004, in the same year she also received a BAFTA. In recognition of her 40 years of charitable work she received a Damehood from Prince Charles and was elevated to Baroness in 2010. Most recently, in May 2024, it was announced that Baroness Floella Benjamin would be the recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship for Exceptional Contributions to Television.
Very passionate about inspiring children and young people, she uses programmes such as Touching Success to help young children meet role models, in addition to encouraging publishers to show more representation in children’s books. Having campaigned on behalf of children for 25 years and lobbied three prime ministers, Floella finally succeeded in getting a minister for children.
Joe Blair, Director of Innovation at The Key Group
Joe has been supporting schools for over 17 years, having joined The Key when it was a government-funded pilot in 2008. He is now Director of Innovation at The Key Group and is leading the development of Robin, the AI-powered policy and website compliance tool.
Joe also spent a year as a Number 10 Innovation Fellow. He worked in the Department for Education, pushing for better use of technology and data in government and across the sector.
Tim Moore, Data Manager at The Hyndburn Academy
Tim is a Data Manager and Computer Science Teacher at both The Hyndburn Academy and Marsden Heights Community College in Lancashire. Tim’s career in education began in 1999 as a Network Manager, where he spent eight years maintaining IT systems, before stepping into the classroom to teach Computer Science. Today, his focus is on Data Management and Analytics. In Tim’s current roles, he draw on my diverse background to make sense of complex information, support educators, and leverage data to solve real-world educational challenges.
Stephen Higgins, Head of AI at Arbor
Stephen is a former secondary school teacher and middle leader. He spent five years working on Arbor’s product before spending time working on data and AI products for the NHS and private sector. In 2024, he returned to Arbor, this time as the Head of AI.
James Weatherill, Co-Founder and CEO of Arbor
James is one of the co-founders of Arbor and has experience in managing and launching innovative products for large and small companies that are loved by millions of users. He is incredibly passionate about building tools that help to save teachers time, mainly as he’s so frustrated at the current status quo of admin, hassle and data that gets in the way of delivering great education. You’ll find him in schools (he’s a MAT governor), or talking to partner companies in one of our offices trying his best to make a lasting, positive and scalable impact.
Alison Day, Executive Director of Growth & Development at LEO Academy Trust
Alison Day, Executive Director at LEO Multi-Academy Trust, has 40 years of experience in primary education, including 17 years as a headteacher. Since assuming an Executive role in 2020, she has focused on school improvement, growth, and leadership development. Alison has fostered a coaching culture within the Trust, established leadership programmes, and supported the shaping of the Growth Strategy. Along with the Growth Strategy’s focus on onboarding new schools the Trust prides itself on integrating technology and AI in both education for all children and the professional services supporting schools. These initiatives reflect the trust’s forward thinking approach and commitment to preparing pupils and staff for the future.
Zoe Marshall, Head of Customer Success at Arbor
Zoe Marshall has been a driving force at Arbor for over seven years, leading the teams responsible for customer onboarding, education, and the thriving Arbor online community. With a background that spans 10 years in teaching and local authority work, she bridges the gap between complex school needs and agile tech solutions. Zoe is dedicated to the continuous improvement of the customer experience, ensuring that as Arbor grows alongside the wider Key Group, our delivery and professional services remain at the forefront of the industry. She is a firm believer in the power of adapting to challenge and staying agile to meet the ever-evolving needs of the education and technology sectors.
John Hayes, Head of Business Applications at Greenwood Academies Trust
John Hayes is Head of Business Applications at Greenwood Academies Trust, where he leads on the strategic use of technology to streamline processes and improve efficiency across the organisation. With a strong focus on low-code solutions, automation, and system integration, John has driven initiatives that reduce workload, unlock cost savings and create more consistent ways of working across trust and academy levels. He has played a key role in shaping digital strategy, including contributions to data, analytics, and emerging AI approaches. Passionate about using technology for good, John believes in creating secure, simple, and well-connected systems that give staff time back to focus on what matters most - supporting pupils.
George Stevens, Data Manager at the Thinking Schools Academy Trust
George spent 16 years in the defence sector providing software and systems for torpedoes and underwater drones. This gave him a lifelong interest in exploring the limits of any system he gets to play with. After too many STEM fairs as an engineer, he defected to the education sector. In the last 15 years he has done many roles, from timetabling a secondary school using just Excel, to chasing seagulls out of dining halls. He has always been a great proponent of letting teachers teach, and admins admin, by supporting them with systems and data that they really need. Favourite phrase: "Data doesn't give you the answers - it gives you the questions."
Tanya Noble, Assistant Headteacher and Behaviour Lead at Cams Hill School
Tanya is an experienced senior leader currently responsible for Key Stage 4 Behaviour, Standards and Attendance at Cams Hill School in Fareham, Hampshire. Beginning her career as an English teacher, she progressed to become a Head of Department before moving into senior leadership as an Assistant Headteacher with a focus on curriculum development and quality assurance.
Tanya is incredibly passionate about using data strategically to improve outcomes for young people and is particularly interested in developing systems that make meaningful information accessible and actionable for all members of the school community. Throughout her career, Tanya has focused on using targeted intervention and effective data analysis to maximise pupil progress and remove barriers to success. More recently, her move into pastoral leadership has seen her working closely with staff, students and families to develop data informed solutions that have a lasting and positive impact across the school community.
Rebecca Pitkin, Specialist Content Writer and Inclusion Specialist at The Key
Rebecca is the Inclusion Specialist at The Key, bringing over 20 years of global education leadership to the evolving SEND landscape. A former Head of Science with a Masters in Nuclear Astrophysics, she applies a rigorous analytical lens to complex educational policy - most recently spearheading The Key’s deep dive into the latest SEND White Paper.
Having led cross-functional teams across the US and UK to build diverse, accessible curriculum programs, Rebecca is an expert at translating bold ideas into practical, actionable strategies for school leaders. When she isn’t decoding the latest updates in inclusion and equity, she is usually found hiking, painting, or enjoying a well-earned TV series binge.
Rob Wall, Head of Data, Danes Educational Trust
Rob is an experienced data leader who has worked in a variety of education settings across the further education, higher education and secondary sectors before joining the Trust.
During this time he has successfully led teams with responsibility for areas including management information systems, exams and assessment, admissions and statutory reporting. He is well placed to offer advice to schools regarding a wide range of data related matters, as well as additional guidance on schools performance measures, and support to develop interactive dashboards and reports focusing on both educational and business KPIs.
Matthew Hall, Executive Headteacher, The Redhill Academy Trust
Matthew Hall is an Executive Headteacher at The Redhill Academy Trust, working across primary and secondary phases to support school improvement, leadership development, and operational effectiveness. With over 20 years of experience in education, including more than a decade in senior leadership, he has held a range of roles, notably serving as Headteacher at The Bolsover School. In this role, he led the school’s transition into the Trust and successfully managed significant change, including the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to his Trust-wide responsibilities, Matthew is currently project managing the development of the North Derbyshire University Academy, a new 16–19 Free School. He is overseeing its design, planning, and delivery, working closely with stakeholders to create a high-quality Post 16 provision that meets local needs.
Matthew also leads the implementation of a single Management Information System across 21 academies. This project focuses on improving consistency, reducing workload, and enabling better use of data to support decision-making and pupil outcomes across the Trust.
Vicki Broad, Finance & Operations Director, Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School
Vicki Broad is the Finance & Operations Director at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, bringing 21 years of experience in the education sector. She leads HR, Finance and whole‑school operations with a strong commitment to Operational Excellence. Known for her ability to simplify complexity, Vicki has reshaped and streamlined key organisational processes to improve consistency, compliance and staff experience.
Her work centres on building smarter, more efficient systems that reduce administrative burden and enable teams to focus on delivering high‑quality outcomes for students and the wider school community.
Daniel Giardiello, General Manager of Robin
Daniel Giardiello is General Manager of Robin, part of The Key/Arbor Education Group. A former teacher and senior leader in Leicestershire special schools, he joined Arbor as a specialist Partnership Manager for SEND. Daniel is passionate about how technology can support effective SEND provision, reduce workload, and help schools respond to ongoing reforms across the sector.
Dewan Chowdhury, Head of Data at Co-op Academies Trust
Dewan Chowdhury is Head of Data at Co-op Academies Trust, where he leads the digital transformation of central operations across 40 academies. With a background spanning teaching, school leadership and data science, Dewan brings a uniquely grounded perspective to the opportunities and challenges facing Central Teams today.
At Co-op Academies Trust, Dewan has been at the forefront of trust-wide system change, leading the implementation of both Arbor MIS and SAMpeople HRIS to create a unified, accurate and efficient data ecosystem.
His work has directly shaped how the Central Team operates across two critical reporting pillars: Student Insights covering attendance, behaviour and pupil progress; and Workforce Intelligence spanning workforce census, absence reporting, HR process and administration, and ICFP.
Drawing on this hands-on experience, Dewan will offer his perspective on what a Central Team of the future looks like in practice, and explore the leadership, culture and systems needed to get there.
Louise Connor, Attendance Lead at James Brindley Academy
Louise leads on attendance across James Brindley Academy, using Arbor to monitor and analyse data, identify trends, and implement targeted interventions. Working in partnership with staff, families, and external agencies, Louise addresses barriers to engagement and promotes a culture where attendance supports positive pupil outcomes.
James Brindley Academy is a multi-site specialist academy for young people from early years to Post 16 in Birmingham who are unable to access mainstream education due to physical or mental health challenges.
Izzi Dorrian, Director of Ecosystem Partnerships at Arbor
Izzi Dorrian is Director of Ecosystem Partnerships at Arbor Education and a qualified education solicitor. She was the co-founder of Habitude, the workflow automation platform which is now Arbor Workflows and previously founded one of London’s leading creative 16-19 academies: East London Arts & Music (ELAM) and the MAT which oversees it, Day One Trust.
Shahista Zamir, Head, Regents Park Community Primary School
Shahista Zamir is a headteacher and experienced senior leader with a strong track record of improving outcomes in schools serving highly disadvantaged communities across Birmingham. Now nearing the end of her first year in headship, she has successfully led a new school through inspection under the revised Ofsted framework while embedding a culture rooted in safeguarding, inclusion, attendance, and staff wellbeing.
Alongside headship, Shahista is completing a Masters in Educational Leadership and contributes to wider system leadership through panels, community engagement, and national speaking work. She speaks on new headship, relational leadership, safeguarding, and sustaining integrity and wellbeing in high-pressure school contexts
Gail Brown,
CEO, Ebor Academy Trust
Gail Brown has extensive experience in primary education and leadership. Prior to her current Trust CEO role, Gail was a successful Headteacher in a number of schools in a range of contexts, an Early Years regional adviser, Local Authority education consultant and a primary teacher across all 3 primary phases. Gail is a great advocate for Early Years and is also proud to represent Ebor Academy Trust at local, regional and National level on various education and health, trust, leadership and CEO exec boards.
Sally Boaden, Chief Finance and Operating Officer at Raleigh Education Trust
Sally joined Raleigh Education Trust in 2021 following a hugely successful career as Chief Finance Officer of an Outstanding Single Academy Trust within the East Midlands and Humberside region. This experience, coupled with her current status as an accredited ESFA School Resource Management Associate (SRMA), has strengthened the Trust central executive team. She brings expansive knowledge and experience to the Trust in all aspects of business support services, including governance, procurement, health & safety, human resources, finance and compliance from primary and secondary settings and academy trusts, bringing over two decades of School Business Leadership experience to the role.
Phillippa De’Ath, Chief Commercial Officer at Arbor
Faith Hinks, Associate Assistant Principal- Think Differently Education Trust
Leading on Think Differently Education Trust’s data improvement plan using Arbor to feed our analytical models, Faith set out on a journey to increase data literacy and accessibility to inform decision making and improve pupil outcomes. She is also Director of Maths across James Brindley Academy, the founding school of the trust.
Phillippa is Arbor's Chief Commercial Officer, responsible for every school’s entire experience with us: from the very first conversation, right through every step of the customer journey, including both the people you meet and the workflows that support you along the way. She's been with Arbor since the beginning, holding a range of roles across the business before stepping into commercial leadership. Phillippa is also the founder of a small academy trust in East London, which keeps her firmly rooted in the realities of running schools, and has a tech career spanning 24 yrs and several technology revolutions. She's delighted to be hosting the MAT Stage at ArborFest.
Katie Craker, Managing Director - SAMpeople & FusionHR
Katie has spent her entire career in human resources, with the last 19 years in the education sector. Katie joined SAMpeople and FusionHR in 2011 and has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth, as HR Consultant, Operations Director and now Managing Director. With a career rooted in HR experience and leadership, Katie has been instrumental in evolving FusionHR and our Staff Absence Management (SAM) system into SAMpeople, a leading education-focused HR system and highly-regarded HR consultancy services.
Katie worked in HR at Education Bradford in 2007, and prior to this she worked in HR for private sector organisations. Katie has a degree in Business Studies and then achieved her Post Graduate Diploma in CiPD.
Katie is known for her collaborative approach and deep understanding of the challenges facing the education workforce. She is a keen advocate for digital transformation as a means to drive effective leadership decision making, improve staff wellbeing and increase retention in schools.
Bex Steele,
Chief Product Officer, Arbor Education
Bex Steele is Chief Product Officer at Arbor Education, with a background in data analytics and a career spent building products that help people turn complex data into clear, actionable insight. She joined Arbor two years ago drawn by a passion for applying that work to something that really matters — helping schools use data to drive meaningful transformation and freeing school staff to focus on the work that matters most.
Dr. Barry Mangham, Trust Data Manager at Esteem Multi-Academy Trust
Barry is the Data Manager at Esteem Multi-Academy Trust, a group of 14 academies predominantly serving the AP and SEND sectors. He began his career in education as an unqualified teacher before completing a PGCE and teaching science in mainstream secondary schools. During a six-year period teaching in Australia, he developed coding skills and built internal data tools to support student wellbeing and progress. On returning to the UK, he transitioned into school data management.
Barry joined Esteem in 2023, where he led the trust-wide migration to Arbor, helping to standardise systems and improve data accessibility across academies. He is a strong advocate for simplifying processes, automating where possible, and using data to drive informed decision-making. Working within a trust that serves a diverse range of learners, he places a strong emphasis on context, recognising that data alone does not tell the full story. More recently, his work has focused on developing and utilising Power BI as a core information delivery tool and integrating multiple systems to create a single, unified source of truth for data across the trust.
Danny Garton, MIS & Reporting Manager at The Consortium Academy Trust
Danny is the MIS & Reporting Manager at The Consortium Academy Trust. He spent around 17 years working with education data, covering everything from early years right through to adult education. Danny is really passionate about helping schools make better use of their data, whether that’s improving reporting, building confidence in data, or finding smarter ways to automate processes. A lot of Danny’s work focuses on tools like Power BI and integrating different systems so things run more smoothly and efficiently across the trust.
David Marlow, Head of School at Esteem North Academy
David is Head of School at Esteem North Academy. ENA is an AP Academy providing education for permanently excluded pupils in the north of Derbyshire Y1 through to Y11. David's first job in education in the late 1990s was as a TA in a MLD Special School. After a successful career as an English teacher, subject leadership roles and Head of Sixth Form, he has held various roles in Senior Leadership since 2012 in both mainstream, special and AP. David introduced Arbor to his former school in 2018 and was on the working group which selected Arbor as their new MIS at his current Trust in 2023. Life away from school comprises of family, many cats and regular gigs in a covers band.